Eagles draw Penn State in 2011 Challenge, and hockey schedule news

The 2011 ACC-Big Ten Challenge matchups have been released today, and Boston College is slated to play the Penn State Nittany Lions at home on Wednesday, November 30. I had thought BC would draw Illinois, since both were the #5 teams in their respective conferences last year, but instead, the Eagles will get to face the 2010-2011 Big Ten #6 squad.

Penn State was 19-15 (9-9) last year and though they had an up-and-down regular season, they shot into at-large territory when they streaked all the way to the Big Ten championship game against Ohio State. This got the Nittany Lions into the NCAA Tournament as a 10-seed; they lost in the round of 64 to Temple.

The Boston College Eagles are 6-5 all-time against Penn State in men’s basketball. These two teams have not played each other since November 24, 2001: an 88-65 BC win.

In other schedule-related news, Boston College has yet to release their hockey schedule for the 2011-2012 season, but our nemeses down Commonwealth Avenue have. There are three regular-season games guaranteed against BC: November 13 (at BC), December 2 (at BC), and December 3 (at BU). Unless we see the Terriers again in the Beanpot final or the Hockey East Tournament, we’ll be finished with them long before Christmas.

As for the 60th Beanpot in February 2012, BU will be playing Harvard in the semifinals, which means the Eagles have drawn Northeastern.